During last month’s PNC Championship, the pessimists among us grieved the plight of Charlie Axel Woods. The warning cries echoed something like this: the soon-to-be teenager’s youthful innocence and exuberance he displays on the golf course will, one day, be mercilessly scraped away by unrelenting media pressure and the impossibly large shadow his dad casts. Charlie’s own self-awareness will evolve to understand how often his name is being typed into a Google search and how he will never be afforded relative anonymity.
If he continues to play golf competitively, the expectations will be several shades beyond unrealistic, bordering on the absurd. There are already odds for him to win a PGA Tour event before he is 20 years old or a major before he reaches 30 years old. No pressure.
Even if he doesn’t choose golf, he will be forced to block out the cacophony. He will have to define success and happiness on his own terms, something his own father has long wrestled with both publicly and privately. Charlie’s birth year, 2009, will be a reminder of that.
How on earth can he – or anyone – become a well-adjusted human being through all of this?
And still, the optimists and hopeful among us had a far different experience watching Charlie playfully and lovingly interact with Tiger Woods in Orlando last month. It was moving and beautiful. We remembered being kids and playing golf with our own fathers, excitedly chasing after each shot and learning why this game has an undeniable gravitational pull. There was a freedom to it – just a boy looking up to a caring dad.
“I’m proud of whatever direction he chooses. Whether he sticks with the game or not, whether he goes into something else, so be it … he’s his own person.” – Tiger Woods
That can happen any day of the week but getting to compete together and have success is something else entirely. It’s like Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr. hitting back-to-back home runs while their careers briefly overlapped over four decades ago. How cool is it that golf, unlike almost any other sport, has an outlet where these two can share something they love on a stage like this? That memory will exist forever, both on YouTube and in their minds. And, health willing, there could be a lot more of these occasions.
Those feelings of gratitude really came together beautifully in a viral clip of Tiger and Charlie’s matching idiosyncrasies. The best moment of the clip comes near the end where Tiger protects his son’s individuality, reiterating that Charlie is not his father and doesn’t have to be.
“Whatever he does in the game of golf, he does,” Tiger said. “Yes, he’s my son. But then again, he’s his own person. I’m proud of whatever direction he chooses. Whether he sticks with the game or not, whether he goes into something else, so be it … he’s his own person.”
All of it – the burden and the joy – is part of being the son of a famous golfer. Many of us felt both as Tiger and Charlie competed together.
Time will tell how Charlie is able to navigate that. Some who have come before him have appeared to manage it well, but the burden is clearly more laborious for others.
Bobby Jones made no demands that his only son follow in his footsteps on the golf course, but he did. Robert Tyre Jones III won an Atlanta City Junior and qualified for three U.S. Amateurs, although when he called his father to tell him that he was facing Jack Nicklaus in the 1959 U.S. Amateur the response on the other end of the phone was, “I’m not coming all the way out there to see you play 12 holes.” Alas, Nicklaus did beat him, 7 and 6, and the two shook hands on the 12th green. Jones III passed away from a heart attack at the age of 47, just two years after his father died, but had a successful life as the vice president of a bank in Nashville, Tennessee, and, before that, the president of a soft drink bottling company in Massachusetts.
Arnold Palmer didn’t have a son. Sam, his grandson, has been on and off the PGA Tour over the years but comes across as a charismatic, kind-hearted soul. His speech at Arnie’s memorial service was genuine and heartwarming.
A 16-year-old Gary Nicklaus was famously on the cover of Sports Illustrated in March of 1985 as “The Next Nicklaus,” much to the ire of his father. The feature story, titled “The Heir to the Bear,” alludes to the Golden Bear being more invested in Gary’s game than his own at that time and predicting his son would win major championships. Gary played at Ohio State and won the Porter Cup as an amateur but ultimately took eight tries to finally make it through PGA Tour Q-School. He only lasted three seasons on tour, which in fairness would be considered very successful in some circles – just not when compared to his father’s career or the lofty expectations that were placed on him.
All of the Nicklaus children were athletes, but the golfers among them found it difficult to escape their father’s shadow.
“Of course, it’s terribly unfair for them,” Barbara Nicklaus said of Gary and his brother, Jackie. “About eight or nine years ago, when he was playing a junior tournament, Jackie said to a reporter, ‘You know, I wish you’d talk to me when I’ve done something for myself and not just because I’m my father’s son.’ ”
Wayne Player seemed to feel that when he quit school at 15 years old to go play golf full-time, only to wander off into the abyss. At the time, his father Gary explained South Africa’s lack of golf prowess by saying there was a lack of work ethic – citing his son Wayne as a primary example.
That apparently has transferred beyond golf, as Wayne has some well-documented fraud issues to go along with an apparent guerrilla marketing attempt at Lee Elder’s first tee ceremony during last year’s Masters.
You accept the highs and the lows, embrace the position you have. Become your own person.
One of Billy Casper’s sons, David, had far worse legal issues. Back in 2001, the then-28-year-old was sentenced to more than 100 years in state prison for a crime spree that included burglarizing his parents’ home and stealing a family car. He pleaded guilty to 35 felony counts, including armed robbery, carjacking and false imprisonment.
But for every painful struggle sons of famous fathers have endured, there are a boatload of others who have been successful competing on the golf course or otherwise.
We’re reminded of Aaron Stewart, son of Payne, who played golf at SMU but has gone on to have a tremendous career outside the ropes as an executive director for the LPGA’s Hilton Vacation Resorts Tournament of Champions played each January. His charisma and passion are evident.
Steve Irwin, son of Hale, similarly played golf at Colorado, his dad’s alma mater, before embarking on an impactful business career.
Although Kevin Stadler couldn’t measure up to his dad’s impressive career (13 PGA Tour wins and the 1982 Masters title), he did win a PGA Tour event in 2014 and was a menace on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour, winning four times there. He even got to tee it up with his father in the Masters.
Al Geiberger won 11 times on the PGA Tour, including one major, and is probably best known for shooting the first 59 in the circuit’s history. His son, Brent, won twice on the PGA Tour and reached the top 50 of the world golf ranking. His other son, John, was the head coach for the men’s golf team at Pepperdine for 16 years and led them to a national title.
And maybe no son has followed up a famous golf father better than Bill Haas, who has won six PGA Tour titles and the FedEx Cup to go along with clutch play down the stretch in the 2015 Presidents Cup as his captain and father, Jay, watched. It must run in the family, as Bill was coached at Wake Forest by Jay’s brother, Jerry, who is going on 25 years leading the Demon Deacons.
You will have a hard time finding nicer people than the Geiberger or the Haas families. They’ve always come across as grounded individuals, and Bill has explained it well over the years.
“Everything I do in this game is because of what (my dad) taught me growing up,” Haas said back in 2016. “Mentally, he’s usually that guy that puts things in perspective for me. If I’m complaining, he says, ‘If you want to have a long career, get used to the lows and just enjoy the highs.’ ”
That may be the biggest lesson in all of this. There are real advantages to being the son of a famous golfer, the type of opportunities that some may take longer to earn. But there are lows, as well. A son is never going to be his father, nor should he try.
You accept the highs and the lows, embrace the position you have. Become your own person.
That’s all any reasonable person can hope for Charlie Woods. He deserves the memories with his dad, and he deserves the space to create his own path in the future.